The net worth of Yamauchi, 80, jumped $3 billion in the past year -- boosting him from third place to surpass property tycoon Akira Mori, Japan's richest man last year, the magazine said.

Nintendo's Wii, with its motion-sensing controller and quirky games that attract casual users, has far outsold rival game machines such as Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 since its launch in 2006.

Shares of Kyoto-based Nintendo have more than tripled in the past two years, boosting the value of the company to around $79 billion, and the fortune of Yamauchi, who owns 10 percent.

Mori, whose Mori Trust is one of the Tokyo's biggest landlords fell to second spot with a net worth of $7.7 billion, the magazine said.